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Zimbabwe
Humanitarian Situation Report Issue No. 8, June 2006
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA)
June
30, 2006
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-6RUEA6?OpenDocument&rc=1&cc=zwe
CERF funds four proposals
in Zimbabwe (see section II)
HIGHLIGHTS
2006
Consolidated Appeal (CAP) for Zimbabwe 44% funded (see section II,
table on page 5) Cereal production improved but may not be sufficient,
FAO (see section III) Malaria puts 5 million at risk, kills 2,000
yearly (Central Statistical Office – CSO) (see section III) 31,000
people on government anti-retroviral treatment programme (see section
III) FAO surveying impact of agricultural assistance (see section
V) See map and population figures for Zimbabwe on page 5
I. ESSENTIAL
STATISTICS/DATA
- 11,750 million
country population in 10 provinces, with 61 districts (CSO)
- 2.4 million
people affected in varying degrees and 700,000 people lost shelter,
livelihoods due to Operation Restore Order/Murambatsvina of May
– July 2005 (UNSG Special Envoy’s Report on Zimbabwe, 18/07/05
– figures disputed in the GoZ response).
- 1,184% inflation
rate down from 1,193.5% in May (CSO)
- ZW$68,5m (US$678)
cost of living for a family of five up from ZW$41m in May. (CSO)
- 21.3% HIV prevalence
rate for age group 15-49 years; (UNAIDS, Press Release, 10 October
2005)
- 1.8 million
people of all ages are HIV infected (MoHCW, NAC strategy document
2004).
- 1.3 million
children orphaned by 2003, 75% due to AIDS. (UNFPA).
II. FUNDING
The
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator has approved US$250,000 from the
Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to each of the four projects
in nutrition, child protection, shelter and health. The projects
were identified by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and
approved by the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) in May 2006.
The Zimbabwe CAP
is 44% funded. Contributions received so far for the priority projects
in the CAP total US$112,404,758 of the US$257,704,441 requested
in the CAP 2006, which was endorsed by the IASC and approved by
the HC (See tables on page 5). In percentage terms, Zimbabwe ranks
7th in CAP funding status among 20 CAPs. By mid June, the global
(aggregated) appeal was 35% funded. Few NGO projects have also been
funded through the CAP. We appeal to donors for more funding to
critical sector needs outlined in the CAP. Meanwhile, OCHA is collaborating
with agencies to ensure accurate reporting of their funding status
on Reliefweb Financial Tracking System (www.reliefweb.int/fts).
III. HUMANITARIAN
SITUATION ANALYSIS
Note: This section
reports on the humanitarian situation only. For humanitarian response
refer to section IV below.
Food security
and livelihoods [from FAO]
Cereal
production prospects look favourable compared to last year’s drought-affected
output of about 550,000 tonnes for maize.
Government estimates
the 2006 maize harvest to be 1,8 metric tonnes (MT). FAO forecast
the maize production to between 1 and 1.2 MT. This is in line with
estimations from USDA of 1.1 to 1.2 MT and the Global Monitoring
for Food Security (GMFS) projection of 1.16 MT.
In addition to
maize, crops such as millet and sorghum, on which fertilizer is
normally not applied in Zimbabwe, have reportedly done very well
this year as indicated by statistics in this section. Therefore,
for the total Zimbabwean population of 11.75 million, the preliminary
estimate of maize import requirement for 2006/07 marketing year
(April/March) is estimated at about 300,000 tonnes, which is about
one-fourth of the level of the previous year. According to the Central
Statistical Office, Zimbabwe needs 1,410mt of maize to feed its
11,75m population per year.
Additional information
on the food production, food security situation and other vulnerability
aspects should soon be available from the findings of the 2006 Zimbabwe
Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) to be released at the
end of July.
According to information
from seed houses about 43,000 MT of maize seed are available for
the 2006/07 season. Negotiations are still ongoing between the Government
and seed houses to agree on seed producer prices for the 2006/07
season. Indications based on area planted are that there is inadequate
groundnut and sunflower seeds for the 2006/07 season. In principle
the Government through the Ministry of Agriculture agreed to allow
NGOs to buy seed locally. According to FAO the Zimbabwe Seed Traders
Association is expecting to get an official letter from the Ministry
of Agriculture to this effect.
Food Aid [from
WFP]
Harvest
from the 2005/6 season has improved maize grain availability in
most parts of the country with villagers mainly relying on self-production
to meet cereal needs (WFP). However, there are concerns that food
stocks in some areas may not last beyond September/October 2006.
Buhera district (eastern Zimbabwe) is one example with reports of
declining food security due to poor harvest. WFP currently provides
school feeding to 76,000 pre- and primary-school children in Buhera,
while supporting 75,000 chronically ill people in the district with
monthly food rations through home based care.
In June 2006,
WFP provided 1 million beneficiaries with approximately 7,000mt
of food through targeted activities, including school feeding, support
for orphans and home based care for the chronically ill, and urban
feeding programmes.
WFP monitoring
shows that maize grain supply, and price, on the open market has
remained relatively stable in most parts of the country. Areas reporting
unavailability of grain include Marondera, Mount Darwin, Chinhoyi
and Murehwa (North-Eastern Zimbabwe) where it is alleged that unavailability
is due to farmers withholding grain in anticipation of improved
selling prices. The Government has appointed the Grain Marketing
Board (GMB) as the sole purchaser of maize. However, as reported
in the local media, some farmers are reluctant to sell their grain
to the GMB at its offering price of ZW$31 million per tonne (NB:
UN exchange rate is US$1 = ZW$ 225,000 while rates on the parallel
market reportedly exceed ZW$400,000 = US$1).
Health [from
WHO, UNICEF, FAO, IOM and The Herald]
The
Minister of Health and Child Welfare (MoHCW) in mid June announced
in the government media that people on government anti-retroviral
treatment (ART) programme have increased from about 25,000 to about
31,000 with an assurance for access to the life prolonging drugs.
The Reserve Bank has provided US$1million funding for the programme.
The government
has indicated that the Measles Immunization campaign (10-21 June)
was a success and it is compiling the total number of children that
were immunized. Previous campaigns achieved 85% coverage and government
has indicated that this time around it wanted 100 percent coverage.
Meanwhile, the government is monitoring the situation in Namibia
where an outbreak of polio has been reported.
The Minister of
Health, Dr. David Parirenyatwa on Africa Malaria Day Campaign confirmed
that malaria is a significant public health problem in Zimbabwe
where 52 out of 62 districts are designated malaria prone areas
with 26 of them being high malaria endemic areas. Over five million
people in Zimbabwe are at risk of contracting malaria each year
and the disease accounts for over 2,000 deaths per year.
The MoHCW has
gathered fresh reports of cholera outbreaks in Chiredzi district
(Masvingo Province) and Kariba district (Mashonaland West Province).
There are few cases reported but these reports and the magnitudes
of the outbreaks are still being verified by the respective provincial
health authorities in the two provinces.
Scabies outbreak
affected mobile and vulnerable people in the Fairfields settlement
of Makoni District in the province of Manicaland.
Avian Flu Update
- As of June 1st the spread of the deadly H5N1 virus which causes
Avian Influenza (AI) has been confirmed in 8 African countries:
Egypt, Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Sudan and
Ivory Coast. Somalia is considered "suspicious", and therefore lab
confirmation is needed. Egypt and Djibouti are the only two African
countries that have reported transmission of the virus to humans.
The Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) funded a technical workshop that
developed the National AI preparedness plan for Zimbabwe in May
2006, and this workshop received technical support from FAO and
WHO. This plan will be incorporated into the regional preparedness
plan. Technical experts to the workshop were drawn from among others,
Division of Livestock Production and Veterinary Services, Ministry
of Health and Child Welfare, WHO, FAO, UNICEF, ZIMRA, National Parks
,ZINWA and Centre for Disease Control (CDC). The WHO funded and
facilitated a Training of Trainers course from 19 to 22 June 2006
for Avian Influenza Preparedness and Control and six (6) technical
experts from the MoHCW and WHO Country Office participated. This
core-group will be responsible for cascading the training in Zimbabwe.
Child Protection
[from UNICEF]
A number
of child protection issues emerged from UNICEF’s partners conducting
the training on SBGV such as high risk sexual behaviours and drug
abuse. In order to address these and other relevant child protection
issues, UNICEF is undertaking targeted activities as outlined under
the "response" section III.
Shelter and
Non-Food Items (NFI) [from IOM]
The
provision of shelter for vulnerable people that were affected by
Operation Murambatsvina is of critical importance. IOM is closely
working with government authorities to identify people in need and
ensure that they are allocated stands for the construction of their
temporary shelter in both urban and rural areas countrywide. (Refer
to section III).
Water and sanitation
[from OCHA & UNICEF]
Closely
linked to the shelter needs, is the need to address water and sanitation
for the mobile and vulnerable people to forestall disease outbreaks
and improve the HIV and AIDS home based care programmes. To this
aim, UNICEF and IOM are collaborating closely since inception of
the clean up operation last year. (Refer to section III).
Education [from
UNICEF]
High
cost of school fees and perceived deteriorating quality of education
remain the main challenges to affected children.
NGO Issues
[from OCHA]
A draft
of the NGO guidelines on registration, MoUs and temporary employment
permits produced by the government is under cabinet consideration
and may be approved in early July.
The Ministry of
Social Welfare at the end of June sent out to NGOs a survey questionnaire
entitled 'Survey on Expatriates in Private Sector Companies and
NGOs in Zimbabwe'. The survey requests historical data concerning
national and international staff from 2003 to date, including names
and skills, job titles, rationale for recruiting international staff,
measures taken to source staff nationally and internship/training
programmes and how these have progressed. It also asks how Temporary
Employment Permits processing may be improved. Some NGOs have confirmed
having received it. Consultations are ongoing between the Ministry
of Social Welfare and the humanitarian community in this regard.
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